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1981 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl

Field	Value
year_game_played	1981
game_name	Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl
football_season	1981
visitor_name_short	UCLA
visitor_nickname	Bruins
visitor_school	University of California, Los Angeles
home_name_short	Michigan
home_nickname	Wolverines
home_school	University of Michigan
visitor_record	7–3–1
home_record	8–3
visitor_coach	Terry Donahue
home_coach	Bo Schembechler
visitor_rank_AP	19
visitor_rank_coaches	16
home_rank_AP	16
home_rank_coaches	13
visitor_1q	0
visitor_2q	0
visitor_3q	7
visitor_4q	7
home_1q	10
home_2q	0
home_3q	3
home_4q	20
date_game_played	December 31
stadium	Houston Astrodome
city	Houston, Texas
MVP	Butch Woolfolk
anthem	Michigan Marching Band
referee	Dixon Holman (SWC)
halftime	UCLA Band and Michigan Marching Band
attendance	50,107
us_network	Mizlou Television Network
us_announcers_link	List of announcers of major college bowl games
us_announcers	Ray Scott and Lee Corso

The 1981 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl was a college football bowl game, played on December 31, 1981. It was the 23rd Bluebonnet Bowl game. The Michigan Wolverines defeated the UCLA Bruins by a score of 33–14. This was the first bowl game meeting of a Big Ten team and a Pac-10 team outside the Rose Bowl Game and was labeled the "mini Rose Bowl". Both teams were in the running to meet in the 1982 Rose Bowl, but had their seasons spoiled on November 21, 1981, by their arch-rivals.

Teams

Main article: 1981 NCAA Division I-A football season

Michigan

Main article: 1981 Michigan Wolverines football team

The defending 1981 Rose Bowl champion Wolverines, who were the preseason #1, opened with a loss to Wisconsin. This led to the Badgers being ranked afterwards. Also, losing the #1 ranking led to the Clemson Tigers winning their first consensus national championship. The Wolverines responded the next week by beating Notre Dame 25-7. Wins over Navy and Indiana led to a cross state showdown at Michigan State, where the Wolverines downed the Spartans 38–20. The next week, Michigan hosted Iowa and lost 9–7. Michigan would win the next four games leading up to the Michigan–Ohio State rivalry football game on November 21. Michigan lost to Ohio State 14–9. Ohio State and Iowa were tied for the Big Ten conference championship. Iowa would go on to the 1982 Rose Bowl, as Iowa and Ohio State did not play each other, and Ohio State had been to the 1980 Rose Bowl.

UCLA

Main article: 1981 UCLA Bruins football team

The Bruins opened the season with wins at Arizona and at #20 Wisconsin. They lost at Iowa, the eventual Big Ten champion 20–9. Even with a 26–23 loss at Stanford and a tie at Washington State, the Bruins were in position to win the Pacific-10 after four straight wins. Going into the UCLA–USC rivalry football game, The Rose Bowl was on the line for the third time for Terry Donahue's UCLA Bruins teams against USC. UCLA lost to USC in a 21–20 nailbiter, which put Washington into the 1982 Rose Bowl. Washington had defeated USC just the week before in what would prove to be the other conference deciding game.

Game summary

Scoring

First quarter

Michigan — Ali Haji-Sheikh, 24-yard field goal.
Michigan — Anthony Carter, 50-yard pass from Steve Smith. Haji-Sheikh converts.

Second quarter

no scoring

Third quarter

UCLA — Jojo Townsell, 17-yard pass from Tom Ramsey. Norm Johnson converts.
Michigan —Haji-Sheikh, 47-yard field goal.

Fourth quarter

Michigan — Butch Woolfolk, one-yard run. Run failed.
UCLA—Tim Wrightman, nine-yard pass from Ramsey. Johnson converts.
Michigan—Smith, nine-yard run. Haji-Sheikh converts.
Michigan—B.J. Dickey, five-yard run. Haji-Sheikh converts.

Aftermath

The Bluebonnet Bowl was the first of three meetings between the schools in 367 days. They met during the 1982 NCAA Division I-A football season twice: at Michigan Stadium, where UCLA won 31–27, and in the 1983 Rose Bowl, where UCLA earned a 24–14 victory.

References

Attendance of 50,107 according to the Michigan football media guide, 40,309 according to the UCLA football media guide. From 1965 to 1983, the Astrodome had a capacity of 50,000 for football.
[https://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/bowls/1981blue.htm Michigan Bowl History, 1981 Bluebonnet Bowl]. University of Michigan Athletic Department

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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